Hospitality Improv
Last week a guest brought in their personal mug to get coffee. After handing it off, our team member fumbled and dropped the mug which shattered into pieces.
Without missing a beat, our team member apologized and grabbed one of our custom mugs (which we sell for $32) from the merch shelf, filled it with coffee and said “Here’s your new mug!”
This is an example of what we call Power To Please. If anything goes awry, our team members are empowered to fix it with a solution they deem appropriate. No need to ask a manager or owner—just make it right.
We’re not worried about people giving away too much. Most people have a solid intuition on what’s appropriate. A simple gut check is to ask yourself: “If I were the guest, what would make me feel taken care of?”
From a mathematical perspective $32 is nothing compared to the lifetime value of a guest. Despite making “business sense” , empowering people to delight our guests isn’t about engaging in a transactional relationship, it’s about creating a remarkable experience. We want people to feel taken care of whether they're a regular or a one-time visitor.
SOPs and checklists provide operational consistency but there’s no way to script an “if this, then that” matrix for every single thing that might happen in a dynamic retail environment. To provide the ultimate experience, we need to have a script while also creating space to improv.